![]() ![]() There’s no one-size-fits-all approach for how references to a page should be saved, so the interpretation is up for grabs for any vendor that wants to include some sort of bookmarking support in its software - if at all. As books, PDF documents are used in a wide range of industries and applications, all with different objectives. What’s for sure, though, is that there’s no right answer. For others, it would be difficult to argue that everyone reading the same book in the future would be interested in the same passage that you highlighted. Would you say that highlight should be part of the book’s table of contents?įor some people, it should. When you read a really interesting passage in that book, you might be inclined to highlight that page for future reference. Let’s go back to the example at the beginning of this post, where you were thinking of your favorite book in a physical format. So what’s all this about? Why can’t PDF software vendors agree on a way to handle bookmarks in PDFs across the industry? Well, the answer is that everyone has their own idea of what a bookmark is. The bookmark you added is nowhere to be found. Open the PDF first in Preview.app and press ⌘ + D to add a bookmark on the current page. You can also test it the other way around. You’ll be presented with an empty list.īut if you select Table of Contents from that menu, you’ll see the “bookmark” you created in Acrobat listed there. Save the PDF and then open the updated document in a third-party PDF reader (in this blog post I’ll be using Preview.app for the Mac, but your results shouldn’t vary too much if you’re using a different PDF viewer) Click on the View Menu icon and select Bookmarks from the dropdown menu. Open a PDF in Acrobat, open the Bookmarks (Outline) panel, and add a new bookmark in the current page you’re on. You can test this if you have a copy of Acrobat. When you add a bookmark to the document using Acrobat, what it really is doing is modifying the document’s outline to include the user-defined item.įact #2: The PDF spec contains no official way to support bookmarks, which means every PDF software vendor gets to decide how they implement bookmark support. When you open a PDF in Acrobat and click on the bookmark icon, what it shows you is actually the outline of the PDF. The outline consists of a tree-structured hierarchy of outline items (sometimes called bookmarks), which serve as a visual table of contents to display the document’s structure to the user.Īs a matter of fact, Adobe’s software treats outline elements and bookmarks the same, which can be even more confusing. Is a Bookmark an Outline Element?įact #1: The PDF spec conflates outline elements and bookmarks. However, they do have subtle differences that can end up frustrating someone if they’re not taken into consideration. Outlines and bookmarks often confuse those who are not familiar with how PDFs work, as they’re pretty similar in both definition and how they function. This allows for the outline to be able to present a rather detailed view of the contents of the entire document in a really convenient way. That is, an outline item can have subitems. One of the main characteristics of the document outline (also referred to as a table of contents) is that its structure resembles a tree of items. In the same way, the PDF spec defines support for document outlines that let users navigate documents with ease and in a speedy manner, allowing them to jump from one section of a document to another one immediately. Being able to quickly glance at a document’s contents can really help with the experience of consuming content - especially when dealing with lengthy pieces of work. Most books have a section that outlines the contents of the book with section titles and the pages where they can be found. Think of your favorite book in its physical format. ![]()
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